Vancouver’s Sunset Beach is set to get a whole lot greener Wednesday with marijuana activists planning a smoke out at the park for the annual 4/20 pot protest.

City staff told activists to find a new venue after last year’s protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery drew tens of thousands of smokers, but park board rankled at their suggestion of a beach venue, where city bylaws prohibit smoking. While the Non-Partisan Association-led park board made political hay of the move and continues to worry about its financial impact, head 4/20 organizer Jeremiah Vandermeer said park staff have been meeting with him regularly to make sure the protest goes down smoothly.

“Because of the grey area that marijuana is currently in, it’s politically difficult for anybody to accept full responsibility for what happens down there,” Vandermeer said in an interview Friday.

“They can’t come out and say they support us 100 per cent and that we’re permitted, but we do everything we can in working with them — just like every permitted event would — and the reason is because we want to make it as safe as possible for everyone.”

Vandermeer said he and others on his team have been meeting weekly and monthly with “every single person that you can possibly imagine with the park board,” from rangers to groundskeepers. They’ve also been working with the city manager’s office, police and other emergency responders, he said.

Some of that diligence comes from a desire to avoid any repeat of the conflict that broke out between police and activists during last year’s July 1 Cannabis Day protest, Vandermeer said. “It was something that we don’t want to ever have happen again,” he said.

Vandermeer said it has been more difficult to plan for the Sunset Beach site because it’s so much larger, but added that the extra space will make it safer.

In recent years the 4/20 event has come to resemble a marijuana farmer’s market and craft fair, and this one is no different.

“This is a protest and we’re there protesting bad laws that we want changed,” Vandermeer said. “The farmer’s market and all the stuff that happens down there is part of our protest and it provides an example of the way things could be in a different world.”

The protest site will sprawl along 250 metres of seawall at the mouth of the False Creek and will include around 400 vendor booths, Vandermeer said. About a quarter of the booths will be positioned on the beach’s sandy outcroppings, with the remainder lined up on the parking lot and a nearby field. A single stage will dominate the protest site’s northwest end.

About 200 tables have already been booked at a cost to vendors of $300 apiece. That cash goes toward the roughly $100,000 organizers are spending on the protest. About half of that cash goes to the stage and the remainder goes to things “mostly put on us by the city,” Vandermeer said. That includes two-way radios to communicate with first responders, a rental ambulance, a medical team and security team.

But organizers and park board are clashing over costs. While Vandermeer claimed protesters are paying for everything any other event would — with the exception of a permit — Sarah Kirby-Yung, the head of the park board, disagrees.

“There’s a lot of city costs and resources that need to be put into this … you’ve got Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services costs, you’ve got Vancouver Police Department costs, you’ve got street and sanitation and traffic management, and that doesn’t account for the additional park board staff and resources that we’re dedicating. We’re putting lifeguards on, we’re going to have park rangers near the seawall. There’s a significant number of impacts,” she said, noting that the city incurred nearly $100,000 in direct costs for last year’s protest.

“I think it’s fair to say that we don’t see eye-to-eye,” Kirby-Yung said.

An unexpected impact of the move to Sunset Beach has come with a decision by park board to shut down the Vancouver Aquatic Centre Wednesday over concern it would fill with smoke.

“We would be operating air intake fans to bring in fresh air and outside, 25- to 30,000 people will be lighting up and smoking marijuana,” Kirby-Yung said. “I don’t think it would be pleasant or healthy.”

About 1,000 people a day use the aquatic centre, including children and seniors with breathing difficulties. With tens of thousands of people rallying outside the facility, getting in and out would be a challenge.

“The Vancouver park board does not endorse this event. They don’t sanction the event, it’s un-permitted, and we don’t think Sunset Beach is an appropriate location,” Kirby-Yung said. “Having said that, the event is happening and so the focus right now has been on working very constructively with our colleagues … to try to ensure a safe event on the day.”

When asked if park staff would be ticketing for smoking violations, Kirby-Yung said park board would look to VPD and follow their lead. Const. Brian Montague, a VPD spokesman, would not disclose plans for policing for Wednesday’s event. VPD have monitored 4/20 protests for 20 years, he said, adding that last year’s event cost police about $50,000.

During last year’s protest at the art gallery, dozens of people were sent to hospital for medical treatment.

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